Panel discussion – Sustainable Collections and Climate Literacy with, from left: Luke Burton, Arts Council England; Yvonne Morris, CILIP; Vicky Clarke, Blackpool Libraries and Laragh Quinney, National Library of Scotland.
ing bold changes to it. She said: “We can think about universal basic income, four day working weeks with no loss of pay, social innovations like 20 mph speed limit where we work, shop and go to school. All of these things that free up human capacity, human potential and human skills to actually work on creating a society that’s living within the physical limits of the earth’s resources. We can meet everyone’s needs because there are enough resources on this planet to do that if we share them out fairly.”
She adds that libraries can deliver books and resources that help people understand how they can make sustain- able changes, but believes there is more to be done by fostering communities. “Green Libraries can create spaces where people can take control in their own communities. If people meet at your library and gather and organise, that’s a political activity. That’s people seeing they can take control in their own community and make things better.”
She warned that centrist political movements were, by definition, too aligned to the status quo to make any meaningful change. She pointed to student debt, saying: “Students in the UK are now the most indebted in the world – in even more debt than Amer-
December 2024
ican students. You can either look at how they live with that debt, or you can look for a solution that gets rid of the need for student debt.”
She argued that the environmental crisis needed a similar, radical rethink – rath- er than looking at ways we can live with the effects of climate change we should make efforts to eliminate the root causes. She also believes that people need hope, instead of visions of impending doom. “If there’s one thing that’s going to get us out of the mess we’re in now it’s human capacity, with many people contributing to our society. The future is not pre-writ- ten, it’s not pre-made. History is made by the actions of people. So what you do in your libraries is shaping the future of the world.”
Planting a seed
A mix of sessions followed with delegates invited to choose strands and explore topics in more depth. These included a look at green procurement, building green communities, and the strategies in place to build a sustainable future.
A new self-assessment tool for libraries was launched by CILIP’s Yvonne Morris, who has asked librarians from all sectors to take part in a consultation process to ensure the tool works for them. The aim of the tool is to allow libraries to assess their progress in reaching sustainable targets set out through the Green Librar-
ies Partnership – from Planting the seed (signing the Green Libraries Manifesto here
www.cilip.org.uk/GreenLibrariesManifesto) to a Thriving Forest, giving services a starting point and clear path to develop their sustainable practice and celebrate it with their users and senior leaders. Rachael Brown, Senior Lecturer in the faculty of Creative and Cultural Indus- tries at University of Portsmouth was joined by students to showcase the project HopePunk in the City. The project asked students to look at space and place and think about engagement.
A further strand of sessions gave del- egates an opportunity to explore some real world case studies before children’s author Piers Torday provided the clos- ing keynote. Piers spoke about his own journey as a published author – including writing his Wild trilogy, which focuses on a hopeful future and the power of collabo- ration in making change.
Solutions and action
Having written the trilogy Piers felt he had nothing more to say on the environ- ment, but when wildfires raged across the world in 2020 he decided he wanted to revisit it. That meant a prequel book, Before the Wild, which again focused on hope and collaboration. But he also per- suaded his publisher, Hachette, to support a sustainable publishing model – Hachette worked with printers on experimental
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